artist's statement by carly bedford

"Dewey: For the High Fashion Librarian"

For this assignment, I conducted a thematic analysis of the data set in order to create a satirical magazine cover that comments on the image and identity of librarians, and how they are perceived by the public.

The librarian figure was drawn based on the image of a pin-up girl, because to me, pin-up girls represent an outdated type of beauty standard. This translates into a commentary on how age old, outdated stereotypes such as the 'old maid', the 'sexy librarian' or the 'know-it-all' still tend to dominate people's images of librarians. Her physical appearance reflects the libSquare data set, derived from a basic count of what physical features appeared the most in the squares. This classic figure of the librarian is juxtaposed in a scene that shows a modern librarian's desk. I chose not to represent books in my image to further dis-associate her from her surroundings; as data from the libSquares showed that the majority of people associated librarians with books, not technology.

The text on the cover provides a satirical perspective about how people view librarians, including comments on the relationship between librarians and books, 'shushing' and the need to re-define the relationship between image and identity. The 'cover feature' interview with the librarian/model addresses how the stereotypical images of librarians do not reflect the work that they do, the evolution of the field of LIS nor the identities of the people that are librarians.